Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoGENEVA / UNRWA LAZZARINI PRESSER
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: GENEVA / UNRWA LAZZARINI PRESSER
TRT: 04:04
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 14 DECEMBER 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior Global Refugee Forum at Palexpo in Geneva
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“Basically, the lucky ones are those who have a place inside our premises and especially now that winter has just started. But the others have absolutely nowhere to go, they live in the open, they live in the cold, in the mud and under the rain. Everywhere you look is congested with makeshift shelters, everywhere you go people are desperate, hungry and are terrified.”
3. Wide shot, press briefing
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“This has nothing to do with aid diversion, this is something which has to do with a total despair the people are expressing in the Gaza Strip. Hunger is something people in Gaza have never ever known before. But hunger has now emerged over the last few weeks, and we meet more and more people who haven’t eaten for one, two or three days.”
5. Wide shot, press briefing
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“What continues to shock me is the ever-increasing level of dehumanization, the lack of empathy and humanity, the fact that people can laugh, cheer and mock and any type of wrongdoing that we observe in this war when in fact, what is happening in Gaza should outrage anyone, should make us all rethink our values. Think, this is also a make-or-break moment for all of us and for our shared humanity.”
7. Med shot, press briefing
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“I am horrified at the smear campaign that targets Palestinians and those who provide aid to them. And on that, I am asking you to help us to push back against misinformation and inaccuracies. I know that some of you are constantly doing fact checking. But fact-checking is absolutely key if we want accurate information.”
9. Med shot, press briefing
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“In suffering there’s absolutely no competition and I believe that ultimately in this war there will be no winner. The longer this war goes on, the largest loss, but beyond that, the deeper the grief. So, I think like many of my colleagues, that there is absolutely no alternative to a proper, genuine political process to end once for all the longest lasting unresolved conflict. 75 years without a solution.”
11. Med shot, press briefing
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
“We are confronted with an unprecedented war, I think it’s a war of all possible superlatives, in terms of destruction, in terms of the number of people killed, in terms of needs, in terms of displacement, and more than ever, countries with a human tradition should continue to express their solidarity, and today the main agency in the Gaza Strip is UNRWA. And would UNRWA collapse, the entire humanitarian system in the Gaza Strip would collapse.”
13. Med shot, press briefing
Almost 70 days since the war started, and one day after his third visit to Gaza, the Head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini today (14 Dec) said, “everywhere you look is congested with makeshift shelters, everywhere you go people are desperate, hungry and are terrified.”
Lazzarini said, “the lucky ones are those who have a place inside our premises and especially now that winter has just started. But the others have absolutely nowhere to go, they live in the open, they live in the cold, in the mud and under the rain.”
Speaking to reporters at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, the UNRWA Commissioner-General said, “hunger is something people in Gaza have never ever known before. But hunger has now emerged over the last few weeks, and we meet more and more people who haven’t eaten for one, two or three days.”
He said, “what continues to shock me is the ever-increasing level of dehumanization, the lack of empathy and humanity, the fact that people can laugh, cheer and mock and any type of wrongdoing that we observe in this war when in fact, what is happening in Gaza should outrage anyone, should make us all rethink our values. Think, this is also a make-or-break moment for all of us and for our shared humanity.”
Lazzarini said he was “horrified at the smear campaign that targets Palestinians and those who provide aid to them,” and ask of journalists “to help us to push back against misinformation and inaccuracies.”
He said, “ultimately in this war there will be no winner,” and “the longer this war goes on, the largest loss, but beyond that, the deeper the grief.”
Lazzarini said, we are confronted with an unprecedented war, I think it’s a war of all possible superlatives, in terms of destruction, in terms of the number of people killed, in terms of needs, in terms of displacement, and more than ever, countries with a human tradition should continue to express their solidarity, and today the main agency in the Gaza Strip is UNRWA. And would UNRWA collapse, the entire humanitarian system in the Gaza Strip would collapse.”
UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The United Nations General Assembly established UNRWA in 1949 with a mandate to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to registered Palestine refugees in the Agency’s area of operations pending a just and lasting solution to their plight.
UNRWA operates in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, The Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
